Quicken 2016 stopped working - asks for login ID [edit]

camdavis58

I have Quicken 16 Home and Business. Have never had a subscription and don't want one. Yesterday it stopped working. When I open the program I see a prompt to log in. I have never had to do that before. When I log in I am presented with options for buying a subscription. My understanding is this version is supposed to work without a subscription. What happened? Why did it change? How can I fix this?

NotACPA

I assume that you mean Q2016 and not Q version 16 which is 30 years old.

Try downloading and installing the latest patch for QW2016 from here:

https://www.quicknperlwiz.com/quicken-patches-us.html

camdavis58

Thanks for this info. I clicked on the "Quicken 2016" button, and that took me to a long list of patches. Should I use mondo or non-mondo? Do the release numbers identify the patch or the version of Quicken each patch is intended for? I assume I don't install all of those patches, right? Thanks.

Chris_QPW

Use the latest Mondo version, in includes the changes of the ones before it, and the Mondo makes sure that all the files get update no matter what versions of files that are already installed.

Note that if this may not fix your problem.  Beside bug fixes it just makes sure that you are logging in with a Quicken Id instead of an Intuit Id, which is of course no longer available.  But recently Quicken Inc has decided to block registering of non Subscription versions, which include Quicken 2014 thru Quicken 2017.  See this thread for details:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7918354/migrating-quicken-2017-from-old-to-new-computer-quicken-data-access-guarantee

You might try canceling the login screen about 3 or 4 times to see if it will let you in.  Some have reported that to work.  If you get logged in, you should always disable your network before running Quicken to make sure it starts in offline mode.  If you are using WiFi you can do that by going turning on airplane mode.

camdavis58

What do you mean by "block registering of non subscription versions"? I have a login and password. I have never had a subscription. Are you saying the only way to continue using Quicken 16 is to purchase a subscription? Why do I need to cancel the login screen? What is the point of that? If I am "let in" what happens? What have I been let into? How is it possible to get logged in without running Quicken? Quicken runs automatically after logging in. Why does Quicken need to be in off line mode? I've never used it that way in the past. Thanks.

Chris_QPW

Since Quicken 2014 the Quicken Id has controlled access the data file.

The first form of this is when you install, and it checks the Quicken Id account and makes sure it is connected to valid purchase.  And if so, it will put in the registration information in the Quicken.ini file (see the thread I point you to for details about that).

After your copy on that machine is properly registered it will still periodically make checks for updates and such by logging in with the Quicken Id.  That is provided it doesn't get an error on the network immediately, if it does it goes into "offline mode" where it stops trying to log in.  It might also give up after three or so tries of presenting you the login. That is the reason for trying that.

If this doesn't work then the only possible way to open your data file would be to upgrade to Quicken Subscription, because they made changes to the way the Quicken Id login works that the old versions of Quicken do not know how to do.  And they aren't going to update those versions to make them compatible for logging into the Quicken server.

camdavis58

So are you saying the goal is to keep Quicken from logging in for any reason? Is that the solution? I first encountered this problem a few days ago. Has it been happening for other people for longer? If so, why wouldn't my Quicken have encountered the log in issue at the same time other people did? I use it every day.

Chris_QPW

I don't really believe that it was their goal to block people from using the older versions of Quicken.  They changed the way the Quicken server authenticates the Quicken Id for logging into their server, and the older versions of Quicken don't know about the changes.  And they aren't going to go back and fix unsupported version of Quicken.  This was bound to happen sooner or later once the Quicken Id was required for using Quicken.

As of why now?  This is a recent change on the Quicken server, but for people that aren't reinstalling which definitely triggers this, well like I said just because your support stopped doesn't change how Quicken works and it does log into the Quicken servers from time to time.  But I have no idea what triggers it to prompt for the Quicken Id at a given point in time.